Grad Profile: @CauseVox helps nonprofits take fundraising online

Grad Profiles highlight the personal and professional stories of Founder Institute Graduates from across the globe.

This profile on CauseVox, a graduate of the Washington DC Founder Institute, was written by Emma Tzeng. Founded in 2009 by Robert Wu and Jefferson Chang, CauseVox helps nonprofit organizations realize their fundraising goals through crowdfunding.

Fundraising is never easy, especially without the right tools. Startup CauseVox understands this. That’s why it’s set out to help nonprofits raise funds through its crowdfunding platform.

Founded in 2009 by Robert Wu and Jefferson Chang, CauseVox was built as a result of the duo’s own struggle to raise money for a pro bono marketing and IT support project for Action for Children, a Kampala-based NGO that assists children and families at risk of falling into poverty and exposure to HIV/AIDS. Recognizing the lack of easy-to-use online tools for raising money online, Wu and Chang got to work building a platform themselves to fundraise for their project.

The results far surpassed their expectations.

“We were overwhelmed by the response from our friends and family through the prototype,” Wu recalls in an interview with Bootstrappist. “We began asking ourselves how this tool can help other people.”

After speaking with donors, supporters, and nonprofit organizations, Wu and Chang learned that using technology to fundraise was a huge challenge for small and medium nonprofits. CauseVox aims to fill this need by offering the technology that nonprofits need to initiate and manage online fundraising at an affordable price.

Any nonprofit can try CauseVox free of charge. When donations surpass $3,000 total, organizations are given to transition into a paid membership plan at $39 a month. CauseVox also charges a flat fee for donations made over its platform.

CauseVox launched privately in the summer of 2010; and within the following six months, it helped several organizations raise a sum total of over $400,000. The startup’s approach differs from other fundraising tools on the market because of its ability to allow nonprofits to completely customize the look and feel of their pages, giving each organization an opportunity to tell its own unique story.

As CauseVox continues to grow, its mission to champion for nonprofits seeking to make a positive dent on the universe is certainly a worthy one to get behind.

“While in Uganda, visiting and living in the slums, we were struck by the poverty and need we saw,” Wu recounts. “We were also struck by the difference and impact that nonprofits make. The world could be so much better, but without nonprofits, the world would be much worse.”

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